Latest news with #TonyBlair
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Keeley's rudest role yet: EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE
was quick to grab some Lioness limelight at Downing Street in the absence of the PM, who now faces the dilemma: How to reward the football heroines? Tony Blair loved celebrity gongings, honouring the entire England World Cup rugby-winning team in 2003 and the 2005 Ashes winners. When yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur broke the record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe Blair rushed through a damehood within 24 hours. Will Starmer follow suit? At least the women footballers should do better than their cricketing counterparts. Former left-arm spinner Alex Hartley has a floodlight pylon named in her honour. England bowler Kate Cross has had temporary loos at Old Trafford named after her. Following the Euro 2025 triumph, proud Scot Andrew Neil clarifies: 'I was cheering on the England team... I have nothing but scorn for the schoolboy nationalist view in Scotland that they'll support any team against England, even if the team's North Korea, Afghanistan or Iran. I think that's a pathetic attitude.' Paisley-born Andrew adds: 'I'm proud as a Scot of my country's heritage, I'm proud of my British national heritage too.' No news of the bunting out in Glasgow, alas... With England's men not having picked up a major trophy since 1966 is it time for the Football Association to have a rebrand? The three lions badge, worn by men and women, features three maned male big cats. Time for the mane-less females to get a look-in perhaps. Like their footballing counterparts, feline lionesses are stealthier, faster and better at teamwork and tactics than the males. Who knows, even the famously maneless Prince William, president of the FA, might back a change. Keeley Hawes, pictured, didn't waste any time getting into nasty mode playing a killer in Prime's The Assassin. 'The series opens with a dog yapping at me on a beach and my first line is: 'What the f*** are you looking at, you little c***?' We used a version without the C-word in the end but you know from the off that this isn't a family show. It's my most sweary role yet.' Subversive musical satirist Tom Lehrer, who has died aged 97, was a favourite of Princess Margaret – 'She thought I was Danny Kaye, whom she fancied,' Lehrer recalled. He notoriously wrote a romantic song about a lover who murdered his girlfriend and kept her hand. 'The night you died I cut it off/ I really don't know why/ For now each time I kiss it/ I get bloodstains on my tie.' Forty-five years after Peter Sellers suffered a fatal heart attack in the Dorchester, his friend director Joe McGrath remembers summoning a doctor to his Shelbourne Hotel suite in Dublin after an earlier minor cardiac arrest. As Sellers lay gasping on a sofa, McGrath opened the door to admit the medic. 'The doctor took one look at me and said Mr Sellers you don't look at all well,' chuckles McGrath.
Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Times
Starmer still perfecting the art of how not to bomb at home
Sir Keir Starmer SAMIR HUSSEIN/WIREIMAGE I t is a difficult balancing act to be friendly to a visiting US president, but not so friendly that it alienates people at home. Of course, Sir Keir Starmer is not the first prime minister to face that dilemma (surely the incessant bagpipes didn't help on his visit to Turnberry to meet President Trump). When Tony Blair was getting ready for his 2003 television address telling the nation that they were commencing the invasion of Iraq after George W Bush bombed Baghdad earlier than expected, he asked his advisers how he should begin. Alastair Campbell suggested: 'My fellow Americans.'
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
The small boats crisis could make Blair's digital ID dream a reality
The last time a Labour government tried to introduce ID cards, Britain was a very different place. It was a pre-smartphone era, and less than half of the population had an internet connection, let alone social media. Privacy was expected. In 2002, five months after 9/11, David Blunkett, home secretary at the time, proposed a national 'entitlement card' designed to crack down on fraudulent use of benefits and the NHS. The plan ultimately morphed into an ID card scheme tied to a national identity register, a central record of citizens. Civil liberties campaigners howled, and despite the then prime minister Tony Blair's enthusiasm, the public never bought into the idea. The coalition government scrapped the idea in 2011, with immigration minister Damian Green personally feeding the hard drives into an industrial shredder. Few lamented the scheme's downfall. But Britain was also a different country in another way. In 2002, net migration into Britain was 172,000, compared with 431,000 last year. Illegal migration is more difficult to measure, but estimates suggest the size of this population has exploded, and small boat crossings have made the problem painfully visible. Asylum claims are at a record high. Immigration is now seen as the most important political issue by the British public, whereas two decades ago the NHS and terrorism were stronger priorities. Blair's ID card push came in the wake of terrorist attacks and was justified on national security grounds. Modern-day promoters of ID cards now believe that concerns around immigration could be the secret to reviving public appetite for a national scheme. Labour Together, the Westminster think tank seen as being closest to the Labour leadership, said last month that a digital 'BritCard' would be the most effective way for people to prove they have the right to be in the UK. Rather than the plastic cards proposed under New Labour, this would involve a mandatory free ID, downloadable on to a smartphone, that could be used to check people's age, their right to drive, work, rent and open bank accounts. The group says that 80pc of the public supports a digital identity in some form. The joint most popular reason for backing the idea is it would deter people from coming to the UK illegally to work. 'The polling is pretty conclusive that people like the idea of a system by which you can prove who you are', says Jake Richards, a Labour MP who supports the idea. 'I don't think there's this big civil liberties argument against it as there was in the Noughties.' Richards points out that many pieces of a digital ID are already in the works, although ministers do not call it that. The Government's digital services are already being combined into a single online system known as 'One Login' used to access childcare benefits, apply for grants and apply for training. Ministers are launching a digital driving licence later this year through a wallet service. Legal migrants must already display an eVisa when applying for jobs. Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, is trying to centralise NHS data as a 'patient passport' by 2028. Blunkett recently argued that the Government should admit this effectively amounts to a digital ID. 'If something's going to happen, you might as well get some credit for it,' he wrote in Prospect magazine. Today, proving one's identity and right to work can involve an array of different documents and processes. There are 16 different ways for UK nationals to prove they have the right to work in the UK. A government-issued ID that displays credentials such as a person's name, right to work, whether they are over 18 and whether they have a driver's licence would, in theory, be harder to game. Proponents also claim that a digital ID card would cost significantly less than its analogue counterpart. In 2005, one analysis claimed that ID cards could cost around £18bn, or roughly £300 per person. Labour Together has estimated that the digital equivalent would cost between £150m and £400m, less than what the Home Office spends annually tackling illegal immigration. Rachel Coldicutt, a technology strategist who has studied digital IDs, says that this may be optimistic. 'Conservatively, you need to put another zero on those figures,' she says. 'Any solution needs to be absolutely rock solid from a technical perspective, and getting that right and usable by everyone is much, much harder than sending out a driver's licence. The real issue is that this could be a white elephant.' Debate on digital ID benefits Coldicutt is also sceptical about the benefits. ' People smugglers won't be scanning IDs before letting people onto small boats, and employers who don't check ID won't suddenly start obeying the law,' she says. While not a silver bullet for solving the problem of illegal migration, supporters argue that making it easier to check IDs would at least help. Verifying the multitude of potential documents can be expensive for employers, so many do not bother, and the multitude of potential documents makes it trivial to fake them. Measures such as last week's announcement that the Government will share the location of asylum hotels with food delivery companies to cut down on illegal working suggest the system, as it stands, can be easily bypassed. A free ID checking app, in comparison, would provide instant answers. Opposition to ID cards in Britain has often stemmed from historical liberties. Critics say digital IDs are reminiscent of a 'papers, please' society that Britain has never been. The only times they have existed have been during the two world wars, as well as the postwar period when practices such as rationing remained. But that argument holds less weight in a world in which we regularly part with personal information to shop online, or, in social media's case, merely to show off. As of last week, adult websites and social media sites must now verify users' ages, so that children are not shown inappropriate material. In other words, people must show ID. Opponents argue that digital IDs would be exclusionary to those without modern smartphones, but the argument is fading as more jobs require staff to be tethered to WhatsApp. Even if there are potential difficulties, Labour MPs are desperate to find a way to counter the rise of Nigel Farage's Reform UK, for whom each immigration scandal leads to a potential bump in the polls. In April, a group of more than 40 Labour MPs said digital ID cards were needed to take control of the migration system, saying 'this Government will only succeed if it is able to get a grip on illegal migration'. 'Lots of colleagues come up and say yes, that time has come', says Richards, the Labour MP. 'I think there's a lot of hunger for it.' The Government itself is yet to commit to the idea, beyond saying it is 'examining' proposals for a BritCard. But if the boats keep coming and the public gets behind the idea, Sir Keir Starmer may yet succeed in doing what Sir Tony couldn't.
Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Why is Ellen DeGeneres selling her £22.5m UK home? Take our quiz
A well-known musician gave ex-prime minister Tony Blair a guitar worth £2,500 in 2002, according to newly released government files. Do you know who it was? Elsewhere, the Lionesses are making final preparations for Sunday's Euro 2025 final against Spain. Whose extra-time penalty against Italy got them there? From Prince George to the Prince of Darkness, see how well you've followed the news this week, and post your score in the comments below.
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Alastair Campbell reveals how he visited Jeffrey Epstein at his 'very fancy' £63m New York mansion after being invited by Ghislaine Maxwell
Alastair Campbell has opened up about his visit to Jeffrey Epstein 's 'very fancy' New York mansion after being invited by Ghislaine Maxwell. Tony Blair 's former spin chief knew Maxwell from his work on the Daily Mirror, and happened to be on the same plane as her when asked if he wanted to meet her new boyfriend. Later that evening, he arrived at the same £63 million Manhattan home that Prince Andrew was famously photographed leaving. Campbell described the mansion as 'incredibly luxurious' and 'very fancy', reminding him of an 'old-fashioned University-style club'. He recalled numerous photos displayed Epstein with famous faces, including 'most of the presidents of our lifetime', but he added he was unsure if Donald Trump had made the cut. After being left alone with Epstein for an hour, he admitted he 'got a bad vibe' and believed there was 'something a bit sly about his face'. Speaking about his visit on his podcast, The Rest is Politics, he said: 'It was very fancy, it was incredibly luxurious. 'It reminded me of those really old-fashioned sort of University-style clubs, where old alumni gather to talk about the old days. 'It felt sort of old-fashioned, but a lot of very fancy art. 'He sat for a while behind this really big desk, which sort of reminded me a little bit of the Resolute desk (the Oval Office desk). 'He has photographs of himself with really famous people all over the place. I didn't see if he had one of Trump. 'Trump wasn't probably remotely on my radar at the time, but definitely most of the presidents of our lifetime.' He described Epstein as being an 'incredible name dropper'. 'I got a bad vibe, and not because of any sense of all the sexual stuff that we've since known about, but just the name-dropping and the arrogance,' he said. 'There was something a bit sly about his face as well.' His invitation to Epstein's mansion came while he was on a flight to America to attend a funeral, when Maxwell happened to be on the same flight. Campbell worked under Maxwell's father, Robert Maxwell, who owned the Daily Mirror, when he worked at the paper in the late 80s. He revealed he knew Ghislaine Maxwell 'pretty well' and added that he 'socialised with her quite a bit', describing her as 'quite funny' as well as 'very energetic and very lively'. 'I always quite liked Ghislaine, I must be honest. I thought she was a really warm personality. I always felt a bit sorry for her because her dad was such a monster,' he said. After the pair 'completely lost touch', they reconnected on a flight while Campbell was working with the government around 20 years ago. 'She actually introduced me to Jeffrey Epstein, the one time I have met him,' he said. 'It's the reason I am in the famous black book. Very hurt that he spelt my name wrong.' He continued: 'She was sitting a few rows behind me and came up and had a chat. 'She just said, and I can definitely remember this, "what are you doing tonight?" and I said "not much, just staying in the hotel". 'She said, "do you want to come and meet my boyfriend?".' That was the last time he saw Epstein and Maxwell, Campell went on to say, before adding he was 'surprised' about her involvement in the scandal. He said: 'I can't say I was surprised he [Epstein] was involved in a real scandal because he struck me as a bit of sleazeball. 'I was surprised [about Ghislaine]. I can imagine children who have had the sort of parent they had to end up with all sorts of psychological stuff going on.' He also added that he finds it 'incredible that she is the only one who has gone to jail' and believes she may 'claim she had an unfair trial because she thought she was covered by this deal in a previous another era'. 'I don't think saying when I knew her, that Ghislaine was a warm and quite attractive personality, is defending her,' Campbell continued. 'It's saying what my experience of her was. I don't remotely and would never defend what she has done in league with Epstein.'
